And, fwiw, I'd start charging for it... that way if it takes off, and you make millions, and you do get disciplined, you probably won't care that much.

Also agree with the suggestion to study the rulebook; perhaps there's a compromise version where it doesn't violate school policy but is still incredibly useful. From the school's position, I imagine AI-enabled study apps are basically an extinction level event for the school's "services," which are basically minting a degree proving that you learned what their brand assures you did. I imagine there's hundreds or thousands of apps that enable cheating, as defined by its current rules. I imagine education will eventually evolve, but first they'll fight the many projects like yours.

- Things (♥) and Reminders for todos (the latter for location based reminders or when I need to use Siri to set them), to put reminders so they are captured

- Notes end up in Dropbox Paper (for work), Mac Notes (for home, sharable within, iMessage users), Notion for specific projects

- Polymail for inbox zero, on iOS and Desktop (I'm biased, but Superhuman never stuck for me and Gmail isn't as effective, feels distracting and unintentionally designed)

- Fantastical for calendar (home, work, although I'd like to break these up more so that I can share them by project/team)

- Openphone for throwaway cell phone for orders, 2fa, etc.

- Arc for web browser

- 1Password both for work and private passwords

- News Feed Eradicator to remove/limit feed distractions on my laptop, Screen Time on iOS

- Turned off all notifications except calendar on Apple Watch

- Slack for work chat, but intentionally been spending less time here for more deep work time. Conversations seem to get more efficient if forced to happen on SMS and phone calls.

- Just bought a Remarkable, which I intend to finally use to replace carrying around paper journals for notes and journaling

- Google Suite (surprised by this, but I no longer need the MS Office Suite any more)

- Google Meet (some people make me use Zoom, but GMeet has gotten much better, no software downloads or updates, it just works and the quality is far better than it was when they launched)

- Like @ggwp99, I also plan my week either Sunday evenings or Monday mornings (I intentionally ignore email Monday mornings since people seem to volley their problems, which may not be correlated with my priorities)

- Start every day by asking the question, "what one thing would make a massive impact on my day or week or month," and start there. It's usually the thing I don't want to do.

- Workout classes 5-6 times a week, 7:30am, pick your poison... F45, Barry's whatever motivates you to leave soaked in sweat. I fought this for years since I didn't care about the superficial reasons for working out. Now I find that I am 100% energy at 9am, flushed with endorphins, and I feel better with 6 hours of sleep than I did with 9.

After years of iterating and building a ton of power user features, the founders didn't see light at the end of the tunnel, were looking for a soft landing, and I really wanted to be sure the product stayed around. I'd used and loved Polymail for so long, tried all the newer superlative-laden email tools, and found everything else to be too clunky or complicated.

I think that email still has a massive distance to go, and it hasn't evolved enough since we all were sharing invites to get early access to Gmail.

I have my own experiences and ideas, but I'm curious what you think... what do you find most frustrating about managing email? What would make it worth paying for?

Finally if you're interested in productivity/email, I'd love to offer give you an extra long trial on Polymail in exchange for your feedback and guidance. Just let me know you're interested here: https://forms.gle/urn2dNYyEH5dcPuH9

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33470936

Points: 27

# Comments: 9

I scan everything with ScannerPro on my iPhone (which OCRs text to make it searchable) as items come in via mail etc. or print to PDF if I see myself needing something later. Scanned docs sync to Dropbox, and I move them to their appropriate Dropbox folder (e.g. property, taxes by year, biz, etc.) when I sit down at my laptop. It’s worked pretty well. I think the key is focus on the new docs, and you’ll eventually stop needing to refer to the old paper docs in your old folders (rather than trying to scan literally everything, which seems like a daunting task).

You’ve started a great dialog with yourself. Congrats, and keep it going.

If you look at any value-centered or “conscious” business that is successful (there are many, I used to run a blog on conscious business), they are successful because they offer a competitive product or service (e.g. Method home products, which filled a gap in design centric, non-toxic cleaning products, then landed distribution through Target). The values and org structure exist to support the founders’ or owners’ vision and its operations, but it never creates competitive advantage.

When I switched away from conventional banks (Wells Fargo in my case), I was surprised how many edge cases there are in banking, so while I love the idea of positioning a new product as a new thing, there seem to be many features and cases when I’d simply want the best bank, period, run by a team whose livelihood depends on serving me so my team, investors, and customers are never left hanging.

On the YC point, it’s none of my business why the founders didn’t do YC again. The CEO was a partner so he very likely was given the option. Since the YC deal can vary with more experienced founders or later stage companies, it simply comes down to the deal offered to your startup. And if you have great relationships with VCs and the tech community already, perhaps it’s an option you’d forgo. And while YC companies are typically excited to try a service that came out of YC, in my experience that has to do with the continued involvement of the founder(s) with with YC (on the forum, offering deals, speaking, etc.). YC founders are smart, and they’re going to choose the best tools for their business every time. But the do YC again question is for the founders to have decided, and I’m sure they considered the option deeply. Anyway, appreciate the thoughtful reply to my comment.

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16322214

Points: 1

# Comments: 0

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13812959

Points: 17

# Comments: 3

Comments URL: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13394558

Points: 19

# Comments: 2

In our experience, actionable feedback comes from founders who have used a product, not those who just spend a lot of time researching. That's precisely the problem with Gartner, Forrester (who basically get paid by both vendors AND buyers to make decisions for companies, with zero interest in the best tool for the job). If you want to throw darts at a product, theirs are world class targets.

While it's easy to throw darts at a handful of short reviews from founders who are so busy they can barely keep up with email, we hear from Founderkit users daily that they find tools and are able to make decisions immediately. Don't read too much into the short reviews. There's a lot more going on here.